Forget-Me-Blog
Um, we've all forgotten to blog. I think it's been a good couple months, and there's really no excuse. I will now make some effort to update our readers as to our recent happenings in Our House In Jersey.
Well, first and foremost, this Friday is the day. THE DAY. For the first time in 7 years, I will be witnessing live, in person - the band, the myth, the legend - Radiohead. Yes, yes; I was THWARTED 2 years ago when they played in Madison Square Garden. Two years before that, I was thwarted again, when a kind soul Fed-Exed me a ticket to their 2 dollar bill show, only to be stuck in upstate NY because I couldn't get a flight to the city (this was back in the "Summer of Radiation"). So I'm really hoping it doesn't monsoon on Friday (like Moray keeps warning me it might), because lord knows, Liberty State Park likes to flood. Somehow I doubt it will be just like Glastonbury. In fact, last time I went to a music festival was Lallapalooza (not to be confused with Meat-a-Palooza) back in 1996. I'm quite sure Metallica was headlining. I distinctly remember hating every minute of it - especially when I got dragged into a mosh pit for the Ramones, and being the shortest person in the crowd, having hundreds of crowd surfers land on my head because I couldn't reach them. It sucked.
However, despite past festival disasters, this year I'm clearly psyched. If I may reminisce... Picture it: August, 2001. I'd been living in the city for just under a year - and let me tell you, it'd been a rough year already, and it wasn't even September yet. Anyway, my lovely friend Kristin was very good about inviting me out to concerts with her - after 4 years in music school, I was (ironically) quite out of touch with modern music. Kristin took me along to many interesting shows at Irving Plaza, such as The Doves, Jeff Tweedy, DJ Shadow - all things I'd never heard before. Admittedly, being the music snob I am, I wasn't really impressed with most of the stuff we'd see, which was why when she asked me if I wanted to see Radiohead with her at Liberty State Park, I was skeptical. Sure, I loved "Creep" back in 9th grade. But I could never understand how this band still existed. I had vague memories of fellow students at school getting really excited by this "OK Computer" album, but I'd never heard it. But luckily for me, Kristin persisted, and on one toasty August night, we boarded a ferry at the World Financial Center and set off to witness one of the most incredible concerts I'd ever been to.
Yes, I know we're entering a world of cheeze, but I am not ashamed! I was blown away. The next night, I borrowed Kid A from Kristin and listened to it on my old discman in complete darkness. It accompanied me to work and back every day for the next few weeks. Next thing you know, I was trying to figure out how to play "Subterranean Homesick Alien" on the piano. I would call Kristin and leave her voicemails of myself playing whatever new Radiohead song I had learned. Poor girl. She had created a monster!!! A monster I say!
So you can see my enthusiasm. Hopefully they won't suck. Ha! Just kidding.
Anyway, that's not an update at all really, in fact none of this has even happened yet! What HAS happened, you ask? Well, after 3 years of 1099s, no health insurance, and frequently watching my poor co-workers verbally assaulted, I've left my graphics job. So I am now sitting down and learning InDesign (and maybe Illustrator if I'm really motivated) and doing a bit of copywork/transcriptions to get me through the summer. Every few years I have one of these moments where my brain starts pulling itself into a few different directions (should I be a musician? should I get health insurance?) - and I think this time the finances (or lack thereof) are starting to win out. We'll see how it goes, I guess.
We've had some wonderful visits this summer - after not seeing each other for well over a decade, friend Allison and her husband stopped by over the 4th of July weekend! Beth Ann, Allison, Sue, Heather, Aaron and I used to cause all sorts of trouble in high school. Well, as much trouble as 6 honor students and a getaway van could cause, anyway. It was really wonderful to see her again. Earlier in the summer Moray's dad and step mom June came over for a visit, which was really fabulous. We got to show them the Jersey sites, and this time there wasn't even a blizzard! Moray's now an uncle - his brother Cameron is now a dad, his little one was born at the end of June - very exciting. There's a great photo of teeny Isaac Alexander on facebook in a guitar-themed one-sie. Pretty awesome. I will ask for permission to post.
Beth Ann has introduced us to a whole new world of awesome Jersey friends, for which we are very grateful. A bunch of the locals came to our Starbucks gig last month, which was really, really wonderful. Aaron did an excellent job hosting and keeping us smiling, and I managed to make everyone sob in return. If I learned anything from that show, it was that I really need to learn some up-tempo songs. All in all, it was a good night, and Starbucks said we could come back any time. :D Plus we got a coupon for a free drink, so, that was nice.
I shall now end the longest blog ever.
Signing off,
Maria
posted by Maria @ 11:44 PM
3 Comments:
Wow, what an update! I'm glad I decided to check the blog this lunchtime.
So to continue the first thread of Maria's post, just as she has Kristen to thank for her introduction to Radiohead, I should thank Maria for my own. The brief story is that on my "celebrate my lay-off" trip to NYC for the 2001 World Series, I got to spend an evening with her. We had an awesome tapas dinner and did nothing other than wander in a completely aimless manner around some obscure and ware-housey sections of Manhattan. In catching up, she mentioned that she had just bought a Radiohead CD and that as weird as it sounded, she was really into them. I think my reaction was the same as hers: "huh...they're still around?" So that planted the bug in my brain to check them out sometime, because there are few people's musical judgment I trust more than Maria's.
It took me a couple years after that to finally sit down and really give an album a listen. And then again. At the risk of using the tired and elitist cliche "no man, you have to listen to a Radiohead album 5 or 6 times in a row to really GET them," I slowly went from "wow, this is interesting stuff" to "well, this is just knee-bucklingly brilliant music." I'm willing to bet that I listen to their albums more than any other music on my ipod.
To close the longest comment to the longest blog, I too got to see Radiohead recently when I went Wednesday to Mansfield, MA. It was my first time, and it did not disappoint, despite me being extremely jet-lagged. I had a ridiculous seat, 10 rows behind where the unorganized "pit" section ended. The light show was dazzling, and the band was just awesome, playing a great set-list. And again, I have Maria to thank for pointing me down the road to Radiohead discovery.
Oh, yay!!
And here I thought I'd just been annoying my friends for years with my obsession. I'm so happy to be validated, bwahahaha!
It's nice to be enthusiastic about music, I can't say that I am very much these days. We had a great time at the gig on Friday as well (and Saturday when we eavesdropped out in the park), although I don't think our seats were quite as excellent... Being 5'3", I mostly saw the backs of everyone's heads, until I gave up and decided to stand on my backpack full of towels, then I could finally see Thom Yorke dancing about gleefully. :)
But it's not about what I saw, obviously. Although out of amusement I feel obligated to mention a few things we DID see, such as the drugged-out frat boy next to me that insisted on chucking plastic botles into the crowd while blowing pot smoke into our faces, and the other crazy guy in front of Beth Ann that actually pulled illegal substances out of his camera and started snorting them. And dancing wildly.
Wow, I'm old. Actually, I think I was born old.
Crazy fans aside, Radiohead are such a tight band, wonderful musicians that really listen to each other. They each, as members, have something really strong to contribute, and they are excellent at their instruments. It is always a joy to hear them live. I'm glad you enjoyed it, Rich!! :D
Keep up the good work.
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